[swombat]

I think you may want to re-read the article and the quote, and the comment you're responding to, and get a bit of context. You sound like a knee-jerk reaction that's actually agreeing with half the article, but in a really needlessly aggressive way.

Nothing's stopping you. But you'll find certain paths easier than others, depending on what you want. That's what the article is about.

Reading my article, you might notice that I'm arguing, precisely, that you don't need VC funding or SV or any of those things to start a successful business.

That said, if you approach it with the "build it up and worry about the money later" that is often present in typical startups, you will probably (not certainly) fail hard.

As for the comment you're replying to, he's also stating the point that in some parts of the world (most parts), you're better off getting on with starting a business that works anywhere, rather than waiting for the "magical tech cofounder" who's going to start a tech startup with you and take it to infinity and beyond. You might notice he's addressing that specifically to people who can't "spin up a Heroku instance in 5 minutes".